TallGuyJohninBKK

Interestingly, with today's report, I believe Thailand just hit its all-time record high for daily new "official" COVID cases, surpassing the prior peak for the Delta wave last August of 23,418. Today's official new cases tally was an even higher 23,557. And of course if you add in today's not officially counted 22,240 ATK cases, then we long ago exceeded last year's combined "unofficial" peak. Today: August 13, 2021: https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main The Our World in Data site will show the same, later today or tomorrow, when they update their info with Thailand's latest case count for today: source link

Thai PM continues corruption drive Never did a news headline have a better dual meaning than this one.... ????

For the day, the daily "official" new COVID cases tally sets another record high for the current wave topping 23,000 for the first time. Patients under care exceeds 180,000 for the the first time. And another big jump in the number of cases in serious condition, as well as a smaller increase in intubated patients, who have more than doubled since the start of the month. https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main For some added context, during the peak of the Delta wave last fall, Thailand's numbers of serious hospital cases and intubated patients topped 5,600 and 1,100 respectively. So the current levels are less than one quarter of those, for now.

"Offit's concern isn't focused on the possibility of potential T-cell exhaustion, but rather the unsustainability of a health strategy centered around trying to prevent mild illness.... some vaccinated people will develop mild cases of COVID-19. "That's okay,” said Offit, adding that the vaccines are working like they're supposed to. "You just want it to keep you out of the hospital, out of the intensive care unit and out of the morgue, and it was doing that. But we labeled those cases breakthroughs, which was, I think, a communications error, and then held this vaccine to a standard that we hold no other mucosal vaccine to." ... "US health officials authorized booster doses in order to prevent mild illness, Offit said. But the focus should instead be on administering first and second vaccine doses to people who are unvaccinated, rather than continuing to boost people who have already gotten their first two shots, he told DW." Ya, like that's going to happen among the whack job remaining anti-vax segment of the U.S.... which happens to be about one-third of the country. And we all know who they are.... Vaccines should go to the people who can benefit from them, and who want them, including the elderly and other at-risk segments whose immune systems need that extra boost.

If you read the full report, it indicates that pretty much all the adverse reactions that occurred were mild and resolved within a day or two post injection. The typical kind of post vaccination reactions. "No serious adverse events were reported. No hospital admissions were reported."

This research has been reported on previously, and the findings included that the 4th vaccine continued to provide protection against serious COVId illness, even though very mild breakthru infections did occur... See below: Fourth Pfizer Dose Is Insufficient to Ward Off Omicron, Israeli Trial Suggests Preliminary data found inoculation did increase antibodies Those with 4th shot only slightly less likely to get variant " Still, those infected in the trial had only slight symptoms or none at all." "Israel started rolling out the fourth dose of the vaccine to the over-60s and immunocompromised in late December amid a surge in cases. Since then, more than half a million Israelis have received the extra dose, according to the Health Ministry. The decision to give the fourth vaccine to the most vulnerable was the correct one, Regev-Yochay said at a virtual press conference, because it may have given additional benefit against omicron. But the results didn’t support a wider rollout to the whole population, she added." https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-17/israel-trial-suggests-4th-dose-not-warding-off-omicron-infection The full study report did actually comment on the 4th dose's likelihood to prevent serious COVID illness, saying of the breakthru infections that occurred: "most of the infected HCW, in all groups complained of only negligible symptoms, which in many cases would not have been tested or reported, without the active surveillance. ... The increased efficacy against symptomatic compared to asymptomatic infections found in this study suggest that the fourth dose may be more efficacious against severe disease and death, as was recently observed22. Therefore, older and vulnerable populations who are at higher risk for severe disease may benefit most from a fourth vaccine dose." ... "Four to five months after the third dose, the fourth dose increases immunogenicity and restores it to levels comparable to peak antibody levels after the third vaccine dose. Thus, while mRNA vaccines seem to be highly potent and protective against severe disease, next-generation vaccines may be needed to provide better protection against infection with highly transmissible future variants." https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.15.22270948v1.full-text

Part of the problem with "news" here, especially, is you never can quite be sure whether the public official actually made a stupid or wrong statement, OR, the competence-challenged media misquoted or mischaracterized what the person said. I have no idea which is this case here, and the numbers you cite above certainly are correct. The only alternative scenario I can throw out is.... about a week ago, MoPH had a chart showing that current hospital occupancy in Bangkok and surrounding provinces was heading north of 25,000 beds. So, it's at least possible, that Anutin's comment was either said, or meant, in the context of the Bangkok region. And, as we well know, the central government types are prone to think of things in a Bangkok-centric context, since the rest of the country really doesn't matter as much (in their inherent thinking). Just sayin... it's possible.

News headline coming soon: Thai Khon dancers in Zebra crossing run down by speeding motorcyclist / car / truck / bus, etc.... ????

None of what you posted above was pertinent to my comment, nor was I disagreeing with those points. What I said and explained was wrong was your comment that: "all reports of waning efficacy are based exclusively on diminishing antibody levels" As I explained above, a lot of the studies and reports on waning efficacy are based on actual followup studies of vaccinated people who are then tested on at what rates, and when, they subsequently become infected. Your prior comment suggested, whether you intended it or not, that the research and reported findings on waning efficacy was only being done using measurements of antibody levels, like the health authorities in Thailand often like to report on.

For the day, big increases in daily cases, patients under care and serious condition patients. New official cases exceed the 20,000 threshold for the first time in the current wave -- seven times the daily number at the start of the year. Daily deaths have more than tripled, and patients under care have increased more than five-fold. https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main

No, I don't believe that's correct. A lot of the waning efficacy projections have have been based on follow-up studies where people who have been vaccinated are then monitored and tracked over periods of time for future infections to see how often they occur and how long after the original vaccinations, and at what rates for different vaccines or combinations of vaccines.

The news lately has a number of different countries announcing or considering fourth shots targeted at specific elderly and vulnerable populations, as opposed to general public mass vaccination. Re the U.S.: A fourth Covid-19 shot might be recommended this fall, as officials 'continually' look at emerging data (CNN) As the world approaches the second anniversary of the declaration of the Covid-19 pandemic by the World Health Organization, on March 11, more nations are rolling out -- or are discussing the possibility of -- fourth doses of coronavirus vaccine for their most vulnerable. In the United States, leading public health officials say they are "very carefully" monitoring if or when fourth doses might be needed. Israel was the first nation to roll out fourth doses, announcing in December that adults 60 and older, medical workers and people with suppressed immune systems were eligible to receive the extra shot if at least four months have passed since their third dose. More recently, the Public Health Agency of Sweden announced last week that second booster doses are recommended for everyone 80 and older in the country. The United Kingdom's Department of Health and Social Care announced Monday that an extra booster dose of coronavirus vaccine will be offered in the spring to adults 75 and older, residents in care homes for older adults and immunosuppressed people 12 and older. Now, the US Food and Drug Administration "is indeed continually looking at the emerging data on the pandemic and variants in the United States and overseas in order to evaluate the potential utility and composition of booster doses," FDA spokesperson Alison Hunt wrote in an email to CNN on Friday. https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/19/health/fourth-covid-19-vaccine-dose-us/index.html

"major public disturbance" I've seen this phrase used before, recently, coming out of Pattaya. Dunno if it's now a favorite of the local police or what.... But it seems to get pulled out every time a farang there spits on the street or something....

Not a lot of detail on that. But the last chart I saw with some of that was dated Feb 10, where the government said only 20% of seniors age 60 and above (the most vulnerable age group) had received 3 vaccine doses thus far. (And no 3rd dose boosters for youngsters, since their vaccinations have only begun recently.) For seniors, that's not gonna cut it with Omicron. Since the Feb. 10 report below, the overall population share for 3rd shot boosters has climbed from the 25% on the chart below to about 27% lately, as you noted above. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/501760971442232/?type=3

If I had a dollar for every post that's been made here on AA in recent months that attempted to misrepresent the UK public data on COVID hospitalizations and deaths relative to vaccination status, I'd be a very rich man. It's either posters doing it intentionally because they're anti-vaxers, and/or, people parroting misinformation they've read on assorted anti-vax leaning websites and such. It also probably would help if the public health officials reported the data in formats that make it less likely to be abused. I too believe useful and important data collected by government agencies should be released to the public. But if I were a CDC or UK public health exec and had witnessed first-hand the torrent of intentional vaccine misinformation that's been put forward by those will malicious motives, I might feel some hesitancy as well. That said, CDC has been getting better at producing clear and unambiguous data on how vaccinations relate to people of various age groups' ability to avoid COVID hospitalizations, as in the following example: FULLY VACCINATED - two shots FULLY VACCINATED plus boosted: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#covidnet-hospitalizations-vaccination And the same for COVID deaths and vaccination status: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#rates-by-vaccine-status

So apparently you're not one of the +- 1,000 people who have died of COVID in Thailand just since the start of the year: https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/posts/508635287421467

Can you see it now? https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/thailand

What's going on with COVID in the west right now is entirely different from what's going on in Asia... Cases and everything else are generally on a downtrend in the U.S., UK and elsewhere. But it's exactly the opposite in Asia, where everything is still on the up-trend. COVID cases with patients hospitalized in Thailand (regular hospitals, not "hospitels,") have grown more than four-fold just since the beginning of the year. Daily COVID deaths have tripled. And the Thai public health authorities expect the local growth of COVID to continue for some time ahead. My compilation below of the key stats from the Thai government's daily COVID reports:

Then you'd better add a bunch more Asian countries to your "brush off" list, including Vietnam and South Korea. Vietnam confirms 47,192 new local Covid-19 cases The Health Ministry announced 47,192 new domestic Covid-19 patients in 63 cities and provinces Sunday, marking a new high in single-day tally. Hanoi continues to lead the number of infections with 5,102 cases, followed by the northern provinces Bac Ninh with 2,360 and Phu Tho with 1,981. The Ministry of Health confirmed 78 Covid-19 deaths on the same day, raising the national death toll to 39,504. Hanoi and HCMC recorded no deaths. https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/vietnam-confirms-47-192-new-local-covid-19-cases-4429797.html Coronavirus: South Korea tops 100,000 cases again South Korea reported 102,211 coronavirus cases on Saturday, topping the 100,000 mark for a second-straight day, though down slightly from the record level reported on Friday. Infections have spiked as the Omicron variant ravages the country. Cases have now doubled since South Korea first surpassed 50,000 infections on February 10. https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/3167666/coronavirus-south-korea-tops-100000-cases-again-malaysian-study-finds

Thailand hasn't been using either Sinovac or Sinopharm for its 3rd dose boosters -- only Pfizer, AZ and Moderna. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=319148783573705&set=a.307692548052662&type=3

Maybe folks here haven't noticed, but COVID is surging right now in numerous countries around Asia, killing victims and putting many in hospitials. It's not just Thailand by any means. Hong Kong Covid surge is overwhelming hospitals, says leader Hong Kong reported 15 coronavirus deaths and more than 6,000 confirmed cases for a second day in a surge the Chinese territory’s leader says is overwhelming hospitals. The government announced plans to have construction crews from mainland China build isolation units with 10,000 beds after crowding at hospitals forced patients to wait outdoors in winter cold. There were 6,063 confirmed cases in the previous 24 hours, raising the territory’s total to 46,763. That was down slightly from Thursday’s 6,116 but one of Hong Kong’s highest daily totals. Hong Kong has tightened travel and business controls as it tries to contain the surge. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/19/hong-kong-covid-surge-is-overwhelming-hospitals-says-leader Covid-19: New cases climb up to 28,825 in the last 24 hours, 34 more dead KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 20 — Public health authorities recorded 28,825 more new Covid-19 positive cases in just the last 24 hours, the highest to date since the start of the pandemic. Deaths caused by the coronavirus also continued to climb, at 34 within the same period, a marked increase from a few weeks earlier when the mortality rate was mostly in the single digit. A dozen of the patients were brought-in dead, the Ministry of Health’s CovidNow website reported. The ministry had reported 36 deaths yesterday. https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2022/02/20/covid-19-new-cases-climb-up-to-28734-in-the-last-24-hours-32-more-dead/2042670

Part of it is a simple and already well discussed explanation. With arrival of the Omicron variant, the protection levels of the current vaccines dropped considerably. Then booster 3rd shots were found to restore those protection levels even with Omicron. But, and it's a big but, Thailand right now only has about 27% of its population having received the 3rd vaccine dose, meaning the other three-quarters of them are at considerable, increased risk from Omicron. The game changed with Omicron, and Thailand hasn't been keeping pace.

COVID deaths, serious cases and patients requiring intubation all up again today. Oddly, according to their stats for the past day, a big reduction in the number of COVID patients in regular hospitals, but an even bigger increase in COVID cases in alternate facilities such as field hospitals and community isolation centers. All while the official new case count for the past 24 hours stayed flat. Not sure how to interpret those changes. Add in the new 14,605 positive ATK tests to the official new case count and you get a combined daily total of 32,968 cases. https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main

I use SyncToy on my Windows 10 PCs to handle my routine backups as well. It's pretty easy to set up an automatic run schedule for ST using Windows that picks what days and times the program will automatically launch and run. However, any volume you want to use with ST would have to first be unlocked and available, e.g., not password protected. If it's encrypted (and not unlocked) or otherwise protected, ST won't be able to access that content.

How about ALSO making an "example" of the speeding, motorcycle-riding RTP police officer who recently ran down and killed the lady doctor while she was crossing the street in a zebra crossing? ????